The smoke pit crew.

 The smoke pit crew.

There were a group of people who hung never a bench which became a smoke pit of ashes over time until the university banned the gathering.

Somewhat divided between time periods of who would be at the location and when. One person was there when the other group was not. Significantly-the group was much larger than this at one other point but yet this was the main group of folks who were at the smoke pit.